Hugh Dawnay, 8th Viscount Downe

Hugh Dawnay (seated second) returning from the Boer War on the RMS Dunottar Castle, July 1900.^[1] Standing L-R: Sir Byron Leighton, Claud Grenfel, Major Frederick Russell Burnham, Captain Gordon Forbes, Abe Bailey (his son John would marry Diana Churchill in 1932), next two unidentified, John Weston Brooke. Seated L-R: Major Bobby White, Lord Downe, General Sir Henry Edward Colville (a year later Churchill as MP would demand an inquiry over his dismissal from South Africa), Major Harry White, Major Joe Laycock, Winston Churchill, Sir Charles Bentinck. Sitting L-R: unidentified, Col. Maurice Gifford (who had lost his arm in the Second Matabele War).

Major-General Hugh Richard Dawnay, 8th Viscount Downe, KCVO, CB, CIE (20 July 1844 - 21 January 1924) was a British Army general and President of the MCC.

Dawnay was the second son of William Dawnay, 7th Viscount Downe and his wife Mary Isabel Bagot, daughter of the Bishop of Bath and Wells.

He fought in the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879, where he was mentioned in despatches. He was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 10th Hussars between 1887 and 1892. He fought in the Second Boer War between 1899 and 1901, where he was mentioned in despatches twice. He retired from the army in 1902, with the rank of Major-General.

A cricketer he played for I Zingari and the MCC, playing in the Aborigines v MCC test at Lord's in 1868 in the first tour of England by an Australian team.^[2][3] He became President of the MCC in 1872^[4]

Downe was created Baron Dawnay, of Danby, on 24 July 1897 and subsequently sat in the House of Lords.

He was invested as a Companion, Order of the Indian Empire (C.I.E.) in 1886, a Companion, Order of the Bath (C.B.) in 1900, as a Commander Royal Victorian Order (C.V.O.) in November 1902 and as a Knight Commander Royal Victorian Order (K.C.V.O.) in December 1902.

His son, Major Hon. Hugh Dawnay, was killed in action in World War I.^[5] His brother, Lewis Payn Dawnay, was MP for Thirsk.

References

1. ^ "FinestHour" (pdf). Journal of the Churchill Center and Societies, Summer 2005. http://www.winstonchurchill.org/files/public/FinestHour127.pdf. Retrieved 2007-08-02. 
2. ^ Cricinfo
3. ^ State Library of New South Wales
4. ^ Wisden 1874
5. ^ CWGC entry

External links

• King's College archives
• thePeerage.com
• Angloboerwar.com

Gallery

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  Cigarette card of Viscount Downe produced during the Second Boer War

• 

  Caricature of Viscount Downe from "Vanity Fair" magazine, 1883

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  Verso of Vanity Fair Article about the 8th Viscount Downe

Military offices
Preceded by Lord Ralph Drury Kerr	Colonel of the 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own) 1912–1924	Succeeded by The Lord Byng of Vimy
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Dawnay 1897–1924	Succeeded by John Dawnay
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by William Dawnay	Viscount Downe 1857–1924	Succeeded by John Dawnay